Archive for the ‘SMS’ Category

If you’re interested in text/SMS reference in libraries, please check out my latest Stacking the Tech column, Text Message Reference: Is It Effective?

“The biblioblogosphere is replete with posts announcing the launch of new SMS (text message) reference services at a steadily increasing number of academic libraries. The appeal of these services is more or less self-evident given the ubiquity of mobile devices on campus.

Journal articles and conference sessions are filled with discussions of products and platforms, as well as strategies to market the new programs including YouTube videos, home page links, and Facebook applications. However, so far little has been gathered about how effective this type of service really is and whether or not it’s something that patrons find useful.”

Yahoo!Tech reports that U.S. wireless subscribers sent 1 trillion SMS messages in 2008, three times the 363 billion text messages sent in 2007. “That comes out to about 3,700 text messages annually—or 10 texts a day—for every cell phone subscriber”.

And SMS messaging is even more popular with college students, 94% of whom send and receive text messages according to a recent study by Ball State University. The survey of 300 college students found that text messaging is now the main form of communication amongst college students.

via Textually.org

Computerworld presents ten tips and tricks for making use of text messaging, which can be used for brief messages of up to 160 characters, on your cell phone. They suggest the following tasks to get you up and running with SMS (short message service) technology:

1. Remember your appointments and schedule new ones
2. Track packages, calories and cash
3. Compose text messages with your voice
4. Get driving directions
5. Search Google From the Road
6. Keep tabs on flights …
7. … and keep tabs on friends
8. Transfer files to your phone
9. Send text messages from your PC
10. Archive your messages

I will be speaking today at the ACRL/NY Symposium about Social Software in Academic Libraries. My presentation is here on Slideshare.net. Thank you to all of the college and university libraries who gave me great quotes about their social software initiatives to use in my prez. Also, here is a quick guide to all of the websites I refer to in my presentation:

Wikis
Wikipedia
WikiHow
University of Minnesota Libraries Wiki
Antioch University New England Library Staff Training & Support Wiki
USC Aiken Gregg-Graniteville Library Wiki Webpage
Ohio University Libraries Biz Wiki
Butler University Libraries WikiRef
ALA 2007 Annual Conference Wiki
Library Success Wiki
Library Instruction Wiki

Social Bookmarking
StumbleUpon
del.icio.us
Southern Connecticut State University Hilton C. Buley Library
MIT Libraries Virtual Reference Collection
University of Pennsylvania Libraries’ PennTags
Libmarks
LIS901-06
Maui Community College Library
University of South Florida Lakeland Library Services
library2.0 tag
ALA2007 tag in del.icio.us

Media Sharing
YouTube
Flickr
Colorado College Tutt & Coburn Libraries
Arizona State University Libraries
Williams College Library on YouTube
School of Dentistry and Health Sciences Libraries at the University of Michigan
GeorgiaTech Webcasts
LIS901-06 Webcasts
SJSU’s School of Library and Information Science
American Library Association on Flickr

Social Networks
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library
University of Central Florida
StonyBrook University Health Sciences Library
Facebook Applications
JSTOR on Facebook
Library 2.0 network on Ning

Blogs
Kelvin Smith Library at Case Western Reserve University
Binghampton University Library
Mohawk College Library
Barnard College
University librarian at the McMaster University Library

IM
Ohio University Libraries
American University Library

Microblogging
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library
Lunar and Planetary Institute

Second Life
Nova Southeastern University Law Library & Technology Center
McMaster University Libraries
San Jose State University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Ohio University

Answers
Answer Board Librarians

Subject Guides
Boston College University Libraries LibGuides
LIS753 on Squidoo

Wired Magazine describes the formidable competition at the National Texting Championship held earlier this year in New York City. Over 300 competitors from across the country joined together in the Roseland Ballroom to put their texting skills to the test in a series of single-elimination rounds in which participants were given increasingly difficult phrases to type into their cell phones for a chance at $25,000.

In his article, In the World of Competitive Texting, Over 20 Is Over the Hill, Neil Janowitz tells us of the de-throning of a West Coast champ, and the rise of a thirteen year old texter, who according to the event website, sends over 4,000 text messages a month.